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Wednesday, July 28, 2004

The Live at Zeke's Gallery CDs. 2002

Howdy!

I don't know what took me so long, but I finally got around to finding and archiving the CD reviews that got published last year in the Hour. For the most part I was the one that got savaged, but I didn't mind. Actually it was quite fun.

For those of you who aren't aware, after opening Zeke's Gallery, I quickly realized that most people are scared to death of Visual Art. So I decided to start programming bands here, figuring that a slightly less intimidating cultural event would get people in the door. They would then realize that the paintings on the wall didn't bite, and because the place is so inviting and comfortable they would come back. So far it has seemed to work.

As of now I'm up to volume 135, what follows are a selection of some of the very first CDs recorded here. All CDs are available here at the gallery, swing by and pick one up. If you're feeling flush, go for the entire series!

Volume 2: Robert David brought some friends over, at the time I had no idea who Andrew Cowan and Joel Zifkin were, afterwards I was thoroughly impressed. They played what I call swamp music.

Volume 5: Mack MacKenzie has played here too many times to count (nine if you're really interested) this time, one of the earlier ones, he played with Bob Stagg, who added a very tasty double bass and accordion to Mack's music. You can call this one "roots," ok?

Volume 7: Francois Dufault and Nathalie Matteau. Francois was the first artist who had his paintings up here and then subsequently played here. Nathalie has a voice that combines the best of Howlin' Wolf with the best of Ute Lemprer. Not your run of the mill guitar voice duo.

Volume 11: Aaron Shragge was the first jazz musician to play here. He then decided it was good enough to play here again, and again, and again. This recording is a fairly straight forward jazz thing. It swings with style and grace.

Volume 12: Hejira is about as close to hippy music as I have ever come. Vaguely Phish-like, with lyrics worthy of Rush, the thing that I liked best was that they were all barefoot.

Volume 17: Rusty Pea Colour is what you get with the freedom of being in music school. French Horn, Electric Guitar, Clarinet (with occasional visits from an accordion and other instruments) weird, wonky and guaranteed to keep you up at night.

Volume 24: Short Stories was another Aaron Shragge project, I like Mike Chamberlain's description of them as "garage jazz."

Volume 27: For the longest time this one was my favorite recording, a double bass trio. Zack Lorber, Adrian Vedady and ooh whatshisname? damn! I keep wanting to organize another one.

Volume 30: Craig Morrison played and organized a whole whack of shows here in December of 2002. Pretty much a roots-rock revolution unto himself, Craig surrounded himself with top notch musicians who knew every nuance and feel of every song. Poodle skirts and ducktails are optional when listening to these.

Volume 31: I screwed up on this one, Kali is one of the better musicians who has ever called Montreal home, I wasn't able to figure out how to get the recording straight if my life had depended on it. Damn.

Volume 34½: Randboro were an amazing and wonderful surprise. They came as an opening act for another band, and ended up playing here like it was their home. They now hold the record for most performances here (and have yet another one coming up on August 4th). As I've told way too many people a combination of the Bo Deans and Neil Young. If you ever have a chance swing by to hear 'em, I guarantee you'll like 'em.

Volume 35: Pat Loiselle was one of the many wonderful musicians who Craig Morrison roped into playing here that December. I was flabbergasted, he wrote a song about the gallery. Cool, eh?

If anybody knows where I can get some MP3s hosted, I'll post some of them.